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Canada Wine Culture

A New World Wine Hotspot: Canada

A rising star for New World wines, Canada has been winning over connoisseurs with a wide range of quality wines, from its iconic ice wine, red, white and fortified wines, expressing the country’s unique terroir.

A cool climate region, coupled with cool nights and hot summers (exceeding 30°C) days, make Canada an ideal growing region for highly aromatic wines bursting with concentrated flavours. While Canada’s wine industry is about 40 years old, the country has been planting grape vines since the 1600s. Nova Scotia is one of the first areas to cultivate grapes in North America. Currently, there are four main wine-growing regions - Niagara Peninsula, Okanagan Valley, Quebec and Nova Scotia totaling almost 30,000 acres and over 600 wineries.

Much like France's AOC and Italy's AOC, Canada designates the viticultural areas with Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), an evaluation system for regional and subappellations and wines. VQA Ontario and the Bristish Columbia Wine Authority are the provincial governments’ official regulators and are authorised to enforce regulations and standards.